*On the upside, New Orleans has a worse record in the West and Charlotte has a longer losing streak.

Besides that, any hint of optimism about the Suns closing in on .500 two weeks ago has been squashed by a six-game losing streak that they take into tonight’s home game with Orlando.

The Magic might seem like an opponent to retrack the Suns’ path but the Suns got thumped by 21 in Orlando earlier this season and are 0-4 this season on the second game of back-to-back sets.

If the Suns lose today, they will be on their first seven-game losing streak since the last season they did not have Steve Nash – 2003-04.

“It’s not fun,” Suns small forward Michael Beasley said. “The atmosphere is terrible. It’s really embarrassing because we’ve got so much talent on this team. We’ve just got to play the game the right way on both sides of the floor and execute our game plan. If that doesn’t work, we’ll come up with something else. But until we try it, we won’t know.”

The Suns staff’s decision to move Beasley to the bench and start Jared Dudley seemed positive despite Saturday’s loss. Beasley had his second best scoring game of the season (21 points), although he did not score in 12 fourth-quarter minutes that Dudley openly expressed frustration with not playing. Dudley played well but fewer minutes (18) than he had played in any of his starts.

P.J. Tucker’s official status for today’s game is questionable, although Tucker was expecting that he would be able to play on the right knee he injured Thursday night. Tucker had no swelling in the knee and was able to work out on it Saturday.

“I probably could’ve pushed it today but everyone was telling me to give it a rest,” said Tucker, who injured it when he was blind-sided by a screen during a full sprint on Thursday’s final third-quarter play.

Tucker’s absence meant Wes Johnson’s first rotation time since the start of the season. He only played eight minutes and hit two of four shots but gave back his points on defense.

* Saturday was Markieff Morris’ first extended time in being matched up with Clippers power forward Blake Griffin. Griffin led all scorers with 24 points in 29 minutes on 10-of-17 shooting from the field and four-of-10 shooting from the free throw line.

“I was trying to take his athleticism away,” Morris said. “I watched a lot of film. I knew what he wanted to do. He hit a lot of tough shots. I’ll watch film and see what I can do better for next time we play them.”

* The Suns led after the first quarter for only the seventh time this season Saturday. They battled the Clippers for three quarters, taking a lead in the third and trailing by two early in the fourth quarter. Then their passing and 3-point shooting deserted them, the turnovers continued and the defense collapsed for a 15-2 run in a 32-16 fourth quarter.

“It’s pretty similar,” Suns power forward Luis Scola said. “Sometimes, it happens in the first quarter or third quarter. This time, it happens in the fourth quarter. It’s simple. We have to find a way to play harder for 48 minutes and find a way to play with different teammates.”

* In Saturday’s loss, the Suns’ starting unit and the Suns’ bench unit each made 18 shots. The starters took 43 to the bench’s 35.

* Orlando has the third lowest scoring offense in the league and is coming off losses at Sacramento and Utah in which it scored 82 and 81 points, respectively. At Sacramento on Friday, the Magic shot 37.5 percent and committed 16 turnovers. Prior to that in Utah, the Magic had a one-for-18 3-point shooting game and committed 19 turnovers.

* In the teams’ first meeting that saw the Suns go from a 10-point halftime lead to 21-point loss, Orlando center Nikola Vucevic had 18 points and 13 rebounds. Marcin Gortat’s engagement in games has remained low lately. His playing time, shot attempts and rebounding all have taken sharp dips from when he started the season playing as well as any NBA center. He surely feels like he should be getting more than three shots in 24 minutes, like he did Saturday, but the staff surely feels like he should be getting more than three rebounds in that time as well. Jermaine O’Neal grabbed six rebounds in 18 minutes off the bench before he was ejected.

* The Suns committed a season-high 20 turnovers Saturday against the Clippers, who lead the league in steals. Tonight, the Suns face a team that is second to last in steals. Because the Suns have kept turnovers down for the most part this season, they rank fifth for percentage of opponent points yielded on fastbreaks.

* Orlando gets 45.7 percent of its points in the paint, the fifth highest percentage in the NBA.

* Phoenix Phactoid Pharaoh Vince Kozar’s Phun Phact o’ the Day: The Suns are 5-3 at home this season. In four of the wins, the Suns trailed by 10 or more points.

* The last word goes to Gentry: “The guys will play through it. If we are going to get out of this, we have to work our way out of it. In this league no one feels sorry for you. It is not a pity league. If you’re down and you want to get yourself out of it, then you have to work yourself out of it. We have to do it collectively as a group -- coaches and players and all others involved.”

LOS ANGELES -- Jared Dudley will return to the Suns starting lineup today with Michael Beasley moving to the bench for today’s game at the Los Angeles Clippers.

Beasley is being demoted after the hope for him becoming the Suns' go-to player fizzled with his 37.4 percent shooting in 20 starts. He has not played in 10 fourth quarters this season because his offensive struggles have been too much to endure on top of his defensive shortcomings.

The move returns Dudley to small forward, a better position for him defensively after struggling to stay with the league’s quicker off-guards.

P.J. Tucker might have been an option to start for Beasley but he will not play today at Staples Center after spraining the MCL in his right knee on the final play of Thursday’s third quarter. Tucker did run today and is hoping that he will be able to play Sunday when the Suns play host to Orlando.

Because of Tucker’s absence, swingman Wes Johnson should get his first rotation time since early in the season.

Center Jermaine O’Neal’s status had not been decided. O’Neal said he had to see how his poked eye would react to the arena lighting.

* Getting well seemed like a more feasible chore when the Suns made a home pit stop Thursday against a team, Dallas, that had been struggling nearly as much as they had.

But as they play in their eighth city in eight days today, the Suns are trying to snap a five-game losing streak against the Pacific Division-leading Clippers who are on a four-game winning streak.

The Suns are trying to avoid their first six-game losing streak since March 2009, when they went winless on a difficult road trip to Orlando, Miami, Houston and San Antonio and came home and lost to Dallas and Cleveland. That team then won six games in a row and finished 46-36.

* The Suns staff was going to settle on a lineup change this morning. Some of that delay probably had to do with the status of P.J. Tucker, who suffered a MCL sprain in his knee during Thursday night’s game and did not return.

It seems like the Suns are ready to put Tucker in the starting lineup instead of Michael Beasley, who is shooting 37 percent this season and has a cumulative league-worst plus-minus ratio of a minus-136 points.

“Maybe him coming in with the second unit and having a little bit more freedom will help too,” Suns coach Alvin Gentry said Friday. “But we have to find some kind of way to get this thing where it’s right and we’re consistent in what we’re doing.”

Even without Tucker, the Suns could still move Beasley to the bench and move Jared Dudley to the starting lineup in his more natural small forward role that is better for him defensively. In that case, Wes Johnson could move into the second unit’s shooting guard role and that would please Gentry, who has wanted to find a way to play Johnson but had a 10-man rotation as it was. Johnson could even be a starting lineup consideration after spending his first two years starting for Minnesota.

* One of Gentry’s favorite stats this season to emphasize the need for offensive ball movement has been the Suns’ shooting percentages depending on the number of passes they make on a possession. In Thursday’s first half, the Suns made 11 of 16 shots in the first half when making three passes or more. With two passes or fewer, they made five of 15 shots. Their first four made baskets were assisted, compared to four of the following 15.

“In general, we’ve got to get more ball movement,” Gentry said. “We’re not a hold-the-ball, iso team. That’s not who we are and we’ve got to get away from that.

* Both teams last played Dallas, although the Clippers did so a day earlier for more rest and no travel. And the Clippers destroyed the Mavericks by 22 in comparison to the Suns losing to them at home when Dallas on the back end of that back-to-back set. The Clippers are 8-3 this season at Staples Center.

* Kind of like football, ball security will be essential today. The Clippers are the best in the league at getting steals (10.9 per game) and forcing opponent turnovers (17.9 per game). Those create easy opportunities and launch the Lob City attack that puts the Clippers at 48 percent shooting, which ranks third best in the league.

* Guess who the leads the Clippers in scoring? Blake Griffin? Nope, although is giving the Clippers 17.6 points and 9.1 rebounds per game. Chris Paul? Nope, although he has been good for 16.1 points and 9.5 assists per game. It is actually sixth man Jamal Crawford, who is averaging 17.8 points per game.

* Not that you want to see the Suns keep digging big holes and making rallies, but the Suns won three of four games against the Clippers last season by rallying from at least nine points down in each of the three wins.

* Phoenix Phactoid Pharaoh Vince Kozar’s Phun Phact o’ the Day: This is the Suns’ seventh road game in a two-week span. Seven other NBA teams have played a total of seven road games this season.

* The last word goes to Gentry: ” I told them that we lead the league in my bads. We’ve got to eliminate the my bads, where I forget to rotate or I didn’t step over or I’m a step late or something like that. That’s gotten us into trouble.”

Michael Beasley pledged before Thursday night's Suns loss that everyone was going to see "a whole new Beasley" in the Dallas game.

It lasted less than four minutes. After Beasley's alleyoop assist and two made shots, his night continued like many of the previous ones. Beasley missed nine of his last 10 shots and never grabbed a rebound in 21 minutes.

Once the Suns' 97-94 home loss to Dallas was over, Coach Alvin Gentry was asked if it was time to move Beasley to the bench.

"More than likely," Gentry said.

Could he do it for Saturday's game at the Los Angles Clippers?

"Could possibly be," Gentry said.

And then Gentry went into a closed-door meeting with Suns staff and Managing Partner Robert Sarver after five consecutive losses. The problem with the timing to demote Beasley now is Thursday night's injury to P.J. Tucker. He was a candidate to replace Beasley at starting small forward but sprained the MCL in his right knee and did not return to the game. More on Tucker's availability will be learned today.

It has become more and more difficult to say the Suns sacrifice offense with Tucker, the team's defensive star, over Beasley, who is shooting 37.4 percent and entered Thursday night with the worst cumulative plus-minus (-136) in the NBA. Beasley was minus-5 Thursday night but center Marcin Gortat was not far behind him, ranking fourth worst in plus-minus (minus-102) for the season entering Thursday night and having a minus-13 game against Dallas.

Lineup moves might not be isolated to the Beasley situation. After a sensational start, Gortat’s play has dropped off drastically to the point that veteran Jermaine O’Neal went from rotation fringe to a departure from the team for his aunt’s death to playing crunch-time minutes instead of Gortat. Against Dallas, Gortat made an alleyoop on the Suns’ first play and then missed all seven of his other shots. The Suns rallied without a center (Jermaine O'Neal after taking an eye poke), as Luis Scola and Markieff Morris teamed for 28 points and 26 rebounds.

A change at center has two clear options unless the Suns pondered Morris at center, where he played the end of Thursday’s game. Removing Beasley has several possibilities. Tucker is an option, if healthy, Jared Dudley could return to the starting lineup as a small forward, a better position for him to avoid matching him up defensively against quick off-guards. If Tucker is out, the Suns could even keep the bench unit in tact and catapult Wes Johnson into a starting role, which he held the previous two seasons in Minnesota.

“I don’t know what it is,” Beasley said of his struggles. “I come in every game optimistic about my play and my shots. It’s just not good right now and it’s not what anybody’s doing. It’s all me. I’m getting extra shots. I’m getting extra shots on top of extra shots. I’ve just got to be patient. Let the game come to me. Just sort of ride it out.

“Of course I’m frustrated because I visualize myself as something I’m not right now. Not to say I can’t be. As of right now, I’m not playing as well as I want to play or can play or as well as the team needs. Yeah, I’m frustrated but like I said just got to continue to do what I’m doing, work hard and ride it out.”

O.J. Mayo has not been around Phoenix for the pains of the skidding Suns' search for a go-to player that they do not have.

It has been quite enough for the Suns to see Mayo become the league’s eighth leading scorer and second most accurate and most prolific 3-point shooter for a $4 million salary.

But Mayo had not had the chance to make the statement about what the Suns missed by passing on him on in person yet. Mayo returned to US Airways Center on Thursday night for the first time since he came to Phoenix in July hoping to sign with the Suns. He left that meeting without a deal after being told he would not start and that he was not the caliber of Eric Gordon. Mayo would not acknowledge that his friends and background had been questioned in the meeting but members of his new team affirmed that the questioning struck him strangely.

Mayo hit the biggest shot of Dallas’ 97-94 victory Thursday night at Phoenix, which has lost five consecutive games to fall to 7-13. With P.J. Tucker leaving the game with a right knee sprain and Michael Beasley benched for an entire fourth quarter for a 10th time this season, Suns coach Alvin Gentry was using a three-guard lineup with the diminutive but tough Sebastian Telfair defending Mayo. Telfair smothered Mayo, who eventually had to rise up and use his height advantage to hit a go-ahead jumper with 34.6 seconds remaining.

There have been plenty of those big shots for Mayo at different stages of Mavericks games this season. He is averaging 19.8 points and making 51 percent of his 3-pointers. Only seven players rank ahead of him in scoring and all have maximum-level or near-maximum contracts. Mayo was choosing between Dallas and Phoenix for an opportunity, not money. He bet on himself, taking a $4 million salary this season and a player option for the second year that he surely will decline after becoming the scorer Dallas needed in Dirk Nowitzki’s absence. After passing on Mayo, the Suns signed Shannon Brown at shooting guard for a potential $7 million over two years.

Asked if Thursday’s game meant more because the opponent was Phoenix, Mayo said, “Maybe just a little bit, obviously. I really wanted to be here but businesswise we couldn’t get to an even playing field. It was all right. I understand. They had to do what is best for them. I had to do what’s best for me. They have a promising future with a good young core and they’re going to get better.”

As Mayo said in October, the problem was that he wanted a chance to start and the Suns indicated to him that Jared Dudley would be starting with Michael Beasley.

“Dudley is probably the last face, other than Dragic when he was here,” Mayo said. “They were very confident in him. He’s a great player. He plays well, very smart and savvy. I just wanted an opportunity to start again and to give myself a shot to go out there and compete against other starting two-guards in this league.”

Mayo said he liked Gentry but that the coach was not part of the meeting with Suns brass. Mayo did not acknowledge whether the Suns made an offer before he left. That made it obvious that he was not blown away after arriving with excitement about the Valley, where he lived for a small part of his early childhood.

“Not really,” Mayo said.

The perception was that Mayo would be a character risk the Suns could not afford after signing Beasley. But the past week’s travels have told an opposite story. People in Memphis loved Mayo and said he was a good person. Their problem was declining production. In Dallas, he has been hailed as a humble, hard-working player who wants to be coached up.

“He’s been great because he wants the responsibility of being a starting two-guard,” Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said. “He wants the responsibility of carrying the scoring load and guarding the better guys. It’s a different world. Last year in Memphis, he’s the No. 3 or No. 4 option. This year, he’s the leading scorer and he’s getting heavy game planning against him every single night by opponents. You have to make the right adjustments. You have to be disciplined and patient and yet still be aggressive. It’s a mindset that is developed over time and he’s doing a solid job with it.”

The Suns have nose-dived to 12 losses, tied for most in the West, because of a four-game losing streak that they accumulated on the road. That streak is also the worst in the West.

Tonight, the Suns stage their “Satisfaction Guaranteed Night” at a time when it might take more than an entertaining night to satisfy Suns fans watching a reeling team. Dallas might be just the right opponent, having lost four of its past five games, playing on the second night of a back-to-back set and carrying a 2-7 road record this season.

“We need to win some home games now,” Suns point guard Goran Dragic said. “This road trip was really tough on us. It’s different when you play at home and sleep in your bed and play in your gym in front of your fans. Hopefully, that changes our game.”

Dragic said the Suns should play like they did in building a 16-point lead Tuesday night at Memphis, the NBA’s best team. The Suns had chances to put away the game (Dragic’s missed free throw) and win the game (Jermaine O’Neal’s missed fadeaway) but wound up losing in overtime for a 1-5 trip.

“You can’t fault the effort,” Suns coach Alvin Gentry said. “We’ve just got to keep plugging away. The one thing, if anything, I told our guys in the locker room after the game is that we have to understand that when we play at a higher level and we play great and we can limit our turnovers and rebound the basketball, there really is no one we can’t play against. We have to finish games. We played great but we have nothing to show for it.”

After today's shootaround, Gentry said he is still considering lineup changes but "more than likely" will continue with the same starting lineup.

* TNT analyst Mike Fratello, who will work tonight’s telecast, said he has not seen the Suns play previously beyond highlights but feels like Michael Beasley, Wes Johnson and Kendall Marshall jump out to him as disappointments.

He is dead on with Beasley, who was supposed to carry the Suns offense but has been its worst and most prolific shooter. With 38 percent shooting, Beasley is averaging 11.5 points in 27.8 minutes per game. Johnson lost a rotation spot to P.J. Tucker while Marshall was never expected to beat out Sebastian Telfair as Dragic’s backup.

Fratello empathized with the roster turnover that Alvin Gentry has endured on top of losing his leaders at both ends of the court in Steve Nash and Grant Hill.

“The only way it’s not difficult is there happens to be four All-Stars in those nine new guys,” Fratello said, referencing the moves that Brooklyn made this summer and the potential in their acquisitions and re-signings. “When you turn it over, what are you replacing it with? If you’re dealing with a bunch of marginal guys, it’s very difficult. What are you building on going into next year?”

Fratello is working tonight’s game with Kevin Harlan, Reggie Miller and Craig Sager.

* Bad omen: the Suns were also 7-12 at this point last season and lost the next game by 23 to Dallas.

But at least that team did get back on track and was sitting three games above .500 before a 3-6 finish.

“It’s a long, long season,” Gentry said. “We went through a similar thing last season and got it turned around and it wasn’t until the 65th game (out of 66) that we got knocked out of the playoff race.”

* Jermaine O’Neal on getting a potential game-winning shot at the end of regulation in Memphis: “It’s been a while. It wasn’t really drawn up that way. They did a good job on not letting Goran come off the screen and roll. We had a double screen at the top and I rolled and Luis popped. They did a good job of keeping Goran on the sideline and it came to me. It felt good to me but it didn’t go in.”

* Marcin Gortat was biting his tongue for a change after the Tuesday loss at Memphis. He was “angry” about something but did not specify what. It might be that he took three shots in the first quarter and one the rest of the game.

“We build the lead because we played a certain way and then we just stop playing the same way,” Gortat said. “We decided to change some things and that’s why we lose the game.”

* Dallas is coming off a 112-90 loss Wednesday night at the Los Angeles Clippers. The Mavericks have lost four of their past five games, getting the one win Saturday at home against Detroit when O.J. Mayo made six 3-pointers. Mayo has hit 50.3 percent of his 3s (second only to Jason Kidd) and 2.7 3s per game (second only to Ryan Anderson) to average 19.7 points, which ranks eighth in the NBA. The seven in front of him are all maximum-contract or near-max players. Mayo is playing for $4 million this season. He chose Dallas after first visiting Phoenix this summer in free agency. He said he wanted the chance to be a starter and it was evident that was not available in Phoenix, which he said expressed to him that there were no other free agents approaching Eric Gordon’s ability.

* Suns point guard Sebastian Telfair is on a flight back to Phoenix today. Gentry said he is planning to use him tonight.

“I don’t ever worry about his energy,” Gentry said. “He’ll be fine. We’ll fill him in on the game plan."

* Phoenix Phactoid Pharaoh Vince Kozar’s Phun Phact o’ the Day: The Suns have averaged 101.6 points in eight home games (5-3) and only 93.8 on this past six-game road trip (1-5).

* The last word goes to Dragic, a 73 percent free throw shooter, reflecting on Tuesday’s loss at Memphis: “If I hit both free throws, we would’ve won the game.”

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